Weekend!
Lists have been made, double-checked, and presents procured.
For adults, the point is to give a gift that will make them say something like “oh, wow! I wanted this” or “oh, wow! I never even knew I wanted this!” but avoid something like “oh, wow! I’m going to be the hit of the White Elephant party!”
For kids, the point is to give a gift that will make them say something noisy when they open it (my favorite: the five year old screaming “I HAVE ALWAYS WANTED THIS”), but then spend the next hour in rapt silence (exceptions can be made for sound effects).
We’re wandering into the weirdness of teenagers, though. Trying to figure out the point there. When the one kid said something like “I really like hip hop”, I immediately went to EPMD (and am thinking about Public Enemy) but I know, deep down, he doesn’t want the old stuff but probably wants DJ Kahled or something. I want to get all political and the kid probably just wants some gold slugs.
Perhaps the goal is to turn them into adults who know how to give good gifts.
You don’t have to believe in Santa to be one of Santa’s Helpers.
So… what’s on your docket?
(Photo is “Footrace finish line, 1925” from the Seattle Municipal Archives, used under a creative commons license)
Allergy shots! Which will be on my docket every weekend for the next three years!
They’re the reverse of homeopathy, because instead of giving you infinitesimal amounts of something magic, they say “Oh, you think you’re allergic to grass? Let’s inject you with concentrated essence of grass!” until your body just decides to stop getting excited about the stuff in the air, because you simply can’t breath in as much grass pollen as they keep injecting you with.
I’ve settled into my dosages nicely (I’ll be at undiluted stuff in a few weeks) but have so far learned that I’m also allergic to a cortisone cream, and that a welt six-inches in diameter both sucks AND is not supposed to happen.
And also, Fallout. And KOTOR II, because Steam has achievements for it now. And Curse of the Azure Bonds, because GoG had a sale…..Report
Whooh! I do hope the shots work for you, and don’t poduce any more six inch welts.Report
The six inch welt had them cut my dosage in half. (Same concentration though). That left a quarter sized one that faded in 24 hours, which is as it should be.
FYI, for anyone considering it — judging by my kid (he’s two years in) these things really do work. (Yes, I used him as a guinea pig. But his allergies were much worse! That makes it okay!). And also, the undiluted stuff is only liquid due to some form of technicality.
It’s like being injected with jello. If jello came in shades like “horrifying black” and “toxic yellow-green nuclear waste”.Report
For a kid with their whole life ahead of them and a bad allergy problem, I’d def. consider this therapy.
For me, with half my life already gone and I’ve somehow made it this far, I don’t know if I’d sign up for three years’ worth of weekend shots. Your allergies must be pretty bad, I assume.Report
Sorry, it’s not weekend shots. They do up to twice a week in increasing dosage/concentration. Then once a week for about a month.
Then monthly.
I skipped about 5 months of “twice a week” by doing a one-day thing. I’m on twice a week to get me up to max concentration/dose. Then I think it’s once a week for maybe a month, then monthly.
Kiddo goes monthly.
I’m every weekend for about two months (I do Wednesday mornings and Saturday mornings). Then one morning a month for years. It’s show up, get a shot, wait 20 minutes, go home.
I have no idea why I said three years — that’s the length of time you’re supposed to go monthly.
(And yes, I have rather unpleasant allergies. I basically have a nasty headache about 6 months of the year. And it’s all stuff you can’t avoid — grasses, trees, etc. I will be surrounded by tree and grass pollen no matter what, so short of moving to the desert….)Report
Hopefully you’ll get better results than I did back in the late 70s (I assume that they’ve learned a lot). For two years, at steadily increasing dosages, I had exactly the same response to each shot: two hours of fairly intense allergy symptoms, then three days when I was completely symptom free, then back to whatever allergy symptoms were “normal” for me at that time of year. The allergy specialist said that he had discussed my peculiar reaction with colleagues, and no one had a clue what was going on.Report
The allergist was pretty up front. It doesn’t work for some people. So far, so good. I’m at least handling the injections fine (and as noted, I’m effectively at month 5 or so). Other than that first one, which I suspect is usually pretty iffy. (You do the “dose you to the gills with meds, then shots every 15 minutes all day trying to get you as far along the road as possible before you react.”. Then they wait a week, as you discontinue all the meds, and try the next shot down. And that’s done as a full office visit, dose split in half. Not the “walk in, get shots and get handed timer, wait 20 and go home” method. I reacted pretty strongly to that, hence the huge welt. So they jumped down a bit more, and I reacted normally to that one).
It’s worked for my kiddo.
I think most of the progress has been methods. They’ve got the all day “go as far as you can” thing (or you can do three or four two-hour sessions a week apart, same deal) to basically try to get you to the monthly shots a lot faster. There’s a pill treatment (same idea) that covers just grasses and ragweed, but apparently gets solid results (akin to shots).
There’s an oral treatment — some sort of drops, but it’s about a third less effective (works on about 60% instead of 90%) so it’s not really used over here.
But the basic idea remains the same, I suppose. Get your immune system used to a much larger dose than you can get naturally, so it reacts less (or not at all) to nature.Report
Not nearly as bad as my husband’s. You KNOW it’s fucking bad when they start calling it immunotherapy (with good reason, his body’s eating itself alive).
Allergy shots in both arms, with both swelling bigger than my fist (nearly time to call the doctor)… and that’s just the local allergic reaction. The systemic shock’s a bitch.Report
Shots! Oh, wait, not the fun kind… Sorry 🙁Report
Heading down to Portland for the weekend with the family, like we do every year, to go Christmas shopping (gotta love that lack of sales tax!). Any Portland OT’ers with good restaurant recommendations I can pass on to the rest of the family?Report
What kind of food do you guys like?Report
The good kind. 😉
No, seriously, outside of vegan/vegetarian fare, we’re pretty much down for anything. We’ll mostly be in the Pearl District, but we go all over the city while we’re there.Report
Oh my gosh!!! Yes! Ok, if you’re in the mood for Thai, you have to hit Red Onion on NW 23rd. Also in the area, Salt and Straw for ice cream. Soooo many fantastic breweries, wineries and distilleries to mention. If you’re in NE Portland, I recommend Pizza Go-Go and Wine Up on Williams. Or, also in NE, Russell Street BBQ with the Secret Society across the street. Best BBQ tofu and cocktails! Anywhere in one area or another you are not too far away from a McMenamins, which is always a safe bet if you ask me. And the McMen’s are so fun and adorable! I once had a lovely time at Journey’s in Multnomah Village, but that was a summertime wine outdoors thing. It’s probably good indoors too.
Ok, I could go on and on. Tod is probably your best best bet for recommendations, though.Report
Just had a lunch at a pizza place in the Pearl District called Oven & Shake…I had a pizza with salami, bacon and honey, the last of which I’ve never even *seen* on pizza before, but holy agnostic God, where has this pizza been my whole life? I just made that shit disappear into my face like a David Blaine trick, and now I feel like one of those Amazonian snakes that eats an entire pig and has to spend the next six weeks digesting it. And now, off to Powell’s! I’ll report on my haul later.Report
I’ve never seen honey on a pizza before, but I often put a little honey and goat cheese on my BLT’s (technically, BST, since I usually use spinach, but I was afraid that wouldn’t be a recognizable acronym) and that’s pretty dang good.Report
Oooh, that sounds delicious. Although I’m not a fan of tomatoes, so I’ll just have to replace it with more bacon, and have myself a BBS with honey. 😉Report
Alright, after returning from an amazing steak-and-scotch dinner at Nostrana (which I believe was the spaceship from the movie Alien, correct?), it’s time to list off the books I scored at Powell’s:
– The second and third Takeshi Kovacs books (Broken Angels and Woken Furies)
– Yet another Culture book, Look to Windward
– Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, which I’m already about forty pages into and can hardly put down (I had to stop myself before I just read through the entire thing while I was at Powell’s)
– Futuristic Violence in Fancy Suits by David Wong, which will probably be next on deck after I finish Between the World and Me
– Two Stephen King short story collections, Just After Sunset and The Bazaar of Bad DreamsReport
No, Ripley flew on the Nostromo (when I made my “chest-burst Kane” Halloween costume a few years ago, I made a pretty decent ship’s logo shoulder-patch for my uniform.)
Nostrana is named after its owner, the famous Julliard-trained dermatologist Dr. Martin Van Nostrand.
http://youtu.be/5JGkMB2gFC0Report
Live in Washington (no income tax) but shop in Oregon (no sales tax)? If you can figure out how to dodge the Fed, you’ll be livin’ the libertarian dream! 😉
(No politics).Report
I’m taking Junior to play in the snow this weekend. I’m kind of in heaven with all the weather we’ve been having. The very unusual tornado we had in Battleground, WA is exciting for me. I know I should be more upset by the flooding, thunder and lightning, but it’s so calming to me.
I can’t believe it’s Friday already. I must still be adjusting to the new job because I feel like it takes seven years to get from Monday to Friday. I can’t ever remember being so happy to have two days off before.Report
All of the social things. Call with sister, talking to my mum, student play, gaming, movie with friend, regular tv date with same friend.
In between those, chores and reading picture books.Report
I’m still hunting for “the one big gift” for K, but I have two really good gifts for her already in case I don’t find “the one.” Kids are dealt with. Lacking something for my brother, but I got time (a little…). And I already know what I’m getting (because I sent her a link for it). I don’t want to give it away, but it goes with my drum kit and rhymes with “bow cell.”Report
I know you have a fever and there’s only one cure, and I’m sure the award is well-deserved, but what will a drummer do with a Nobel?Report
Lain has taken ill (again), and so that’s going to be collecting a lot of my attention. I need to find an app to keep track of when she’s last gotten each type of medicine.
I need to get the laundry taken care of.
My attempts at finding a physician have been less than successful. Almost no physicians are accepting new patients and my wife is wary about me going to a mid-level provider. So far I’ve found one doctor about 40-minutes away, whose reputation isn’t great. (There are three in town accepting new patience, but according to Clancy each of the three have openings for very good reasons.)Report
We took in three horses from a gal who had a horse rescue facility. She fell ill and couldn’t keep it going. They are all doing good and very healthy. This week the colt was bucking and playing and scratched his leg. It’s pretty much scabbed over but will see if I can apply some fresh cut aloe to it.
I usually let stuff like that heal natural if it doesn’t show signs of infection, but whatever type of aloe we have tends to reduce heal time significantly.
It’s been a long time since I was around horses, their hair has a specific smell. Not offensive but a mix of dust and herb. Most of them have a quite, calm, good nature mixed with keen sense of awareness.
My wife enjoys walking out to them and visiting. There is something about women and horses. Some unknown connection lost in the depths of time that resurfaces on occasion. I’ve seen it with both my sisters and it is the same with my wife.Report